Top cop: Video surveillance doesn't dispute Scott suicide

December 03, 2009

Chicago police have gathered more evidence indicating Chicago school board president Michael Scott took his own life last month, but Supt. Jody Weis isn't quite ready to go along with the Cook County medical examiner and call his death a suicide.

Weis said video cameras show Scott did not stop or meet anyone Nov. 15 during his drive from his sister's in the South Loop to the Apparel Center along the North Branch of the Chicago River, where Scott was found dead hours later of a single gunshot wound to the head."There was good video we picked up that show his travels," Weis said. "It overlayed nicely with the technical surveillance we did, so there was no indication of any meeting from when he left (his sister's) to when he arrived at this location."

He added that it was "pretty much a direct drive from the sister to that location."

The medical examiner's office has concluded that the gunshot wound to Scott's left temple was consistent with suicide, and Weiss has previously disclosed that a gun found under Scott's body belonged to him and that there was gunshot residue on his left hand.

But Weis said he was not ready yet to reach the same conclusion as the medical examiner.

"As of right now, I'm keeping it a death investigation," Weis said. "We're going to sit down and just take one more hard look at everything, make sure we haven't missed anything, and make sure the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed.

"The one question we may never have is why this happened," he added. "But it's important that we talk with every person. . . We just want to make sure we cover all the bases on this because so many people, when you speak to them, these people who knew Michael say there's no way he would have committed suicide. And I think you have to respect someone who has known the man for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years when they feel so strongly about it.

"I want to make sure that everybody that the phone records indicated he may have had a conversation with, that we've talked to personally so that we can try to find out what was going on -- if there was any type of threat to him that may have been relayed to someone, if there is any type of duress or stress that he was under."

Chief Medical Examiner Nancy Jones held a rare news conference last month reaffirming her office's findings after Weis said he needed to investigate the death more thoroughly. Mayor Richard Daley, who had apppointed Scott to a series of public jobs, responded by ridiculing her.